Familiarity
by iiSarahJaxii
Summary: Ness would more likely be called Ninten's best friend. They met each other younger. They've spent more time at each other's houses. They have toothbrushes at each other's houses from how often they've slept over. They play video games on a regular basis and can sprout a stream of inside jokes in the middle of it without even realizing. Ness is his best friend, but Claus is home.


**Editor's Note: So, Sarah's more or less rolling along with the Mother/Earthbound fandom after I practically shoved the amazing wonders of the Mother series in her lovely mind.**

**Just to note a few things:  
-Ness is not like his super heroic flawless self that you see in other Fanfics. So slight OOC?  
-Ninten is more like his Japanese-depicted self where he's rather snarky and sarcastic.  
-Lucas is shy but he still has enough guts to be a marshmallow with a backbone.  
-Sarah thought Claus was younger than Ninten so slight modulations there-**

**Needless to say, a few things are rather different from their canon/fanon self but I think you'll all enjoy this very much and laugh as much as I did uvu**

******In any case, enjoy this Ninten x Claus fic with a side dish of Lucas x Ness!**

* * *

Ninten's used to the steady familiarity that being around Claus brings him. They've been friends for so long that they slip into habits and patterns without being aware of it, and by know Ninten's lost track of how many hoodies in his closet started their life belonging to Claus.

Technically, Ness would be more likely to be called his best friend. They met each other younger, back in elementary school, before either of them met the twins in middle school. They've spent more time at each other's houses. They have toothbrushes at each other's houses from how often they've slept over. Their mothers are friends. They play video games on a regular basis and can sprout a stream of inside jokes and insults in the middle of it without even realising.

Ness is his best friend, but Claus is home.

Claus is who he can curl up with on any given evening, sitting on the couch with his toes tucked under Claus' legs, blankets in disarray around them and a shared popcorn bowl. Claus is the one he can go to for advice on anything, and he'll get at least the best attempt of an answer, even if Claus doesn't have any experience on the subject - after he's given the perfunctory eye roll, anyways. Claus is the one he can sit with and not have to carry a conversation, feel warm from being wrapped in the comfortable silence, work or laze around side by side and enjoy each other's company.

He thinks he could spend the rest of his life like this, and the feeling frightens him a little.

They're most of their way into their Junior Year when everyone starts talking about Junior Prom.

Ninten's sitting at the kitchen island in Ness' house, kicking his legs beneath the bar stool, and exchanging exasperating looks with his best friend's mother, who, oddly enough, just prefers to be called Mom by everyone.

Ness paces in front of the two of them, detailing them with a long lead up for a "hypothetical" situation that he wants their view on. "So, let's say that this guy I like -"

"Hypothetically," Mom cuts in with a tone of dry amusement.

"Yes, hypothetically," Ness says, and it's a testament to his nerves that he doesn't snark at her, and only reaches up to thumb over the brim of his ball cap in a habitual soothing gesture. Ninten exchanges another look with Mom, this time in concern instead of exasperation. "Hypothetically, I like this guy, only there's no way I can ask him out. I'm too scared to because well... this guy, he's like, way too good for me, alright?"

"Ness," Mom whispers softly.

"Alright," Ninten jumps in. "So why is this guy hypothetically too good for you?"

"Because..." Ness takes a deep breath, and scoops his hat off his head for a moment so he can brush his palm over his hair. "This guy... he's gorgeous, like so gorgeous, and not like classically so. Like he'll be sitting there and you'll notice the way his hair curves, all shining in the light, and pieces of it will stick out over the collar of his shirt. Or you'll notice the way his cheeks flush when he blushes, or his eyes crinkle when he smiles, like he's always a little bit shy of it. He's gorgeous, but that's just a piece of it. Like he's so smart, but he never indicates it, he can get good grades or answer your questions or tell you little facts about things, like he's a store of information that's too scared to voice it since he doesn't want to attract too much attention or make anyone else feel bad by getting a better grade. And he's kind, so kind, he will sit with you quietly on a bad day just for the presence, listen to you, notice your moods and hold doors open for people, help teachers after class. He's just way too good for me."

Ninten clears his throat. "Hypothetically," he adds a little weakly.

"Yes," Ness says tiredly. "Hypothetically."

Ninten knows acutely who Ness is talking about, but his mother doesn't, which is the important part. He knows that Mom is far too smart to think that Ness' crush is truly "hypothetical" (he doesn't think anyone could believe that, actually), but she doesn't know _who_ it is, which is the important part.

"Ness, there's no way you're not good enough for this boy," Mom says gently, raising from the bar stool.

"I'm not, I'm too loud and brash and impulsive, and he's so sensitive, and I'm... I'm just," Ness stalls, swallowing loudly.

Ninten supposes the hypothetical value of this conversation has been dropped. "I doubt that. You both have strengths, you're just different people. Who says he doesn't think just as highly of you as you do of him?"

Ness shoots Ninten a look like that is clearly an impossibility.

"Who's this 'he'?" says a voice from behind them, and they all jump, spinning to see Tracy standing at the entrance to the kitchen, fixing them all with a look.

For a thirteen year old, she had already proved to be sharply witted enough that Ninten was glad she wasn't _his_ sister.

"Someone hypothetical," Ness says, narrowing his eyes in a way that dared Tracy to counter him.

"Oh really?" Tracy says, slipping passed her brother. "Well, you wouldn't be able to get anyone unless they were hypothetical, would you?"

Ness trips her. Ninten lays his head down on the counter and wonders why this was his life.

"MOM, NESS TRIPPED ME!"

"DID YOU HEAR WHAT SHE SAID ABOUT ME?"

"WELL I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO SAY IT IF IT WEREN'T TRUE! OW, STOP KICKING ME!"

"I'll see you later, Mom," Ninten says, retrieving his backpack from the counter.

"Goodbye, Ninten dear," She says, giving Ninten an angelic smile before she wrestles her son off his sibling and twists his arm behind his back.

Ninten scurries out of the house and up to his street, wondering how it was that he was acclimatized to this already.

* * *

"Claus, are you home?" Ninten says into his phone. He's sitting in his house's entryway, sprawled over the hardwood. He doesn't see much point in making himself more comfortable, considering that he's hoping he won't be sticking around much longer.

"Yeah," replies the deeper voice on the other line, "I was just going to go take a shower, but you can come over anyway. It shouldn't take me much longer than it'll take you to get there, and Lucas is home too."

Ninten shivers, but it's only because it's chillier in the house than it was outside in the sun. It has nothing to do with thinking of water running down Claus in rivulets, slipping down the hollow of his throat and thickening over the dip of collarbone, the way Ninten remembers from when they've gone swimming together.

"Awesome," Ninten says, and he can imagine the way Claus is rolling his eyes over his usage of the word. Claus says he uses it too much; Ninten tries to use it more around him.

"Great," Claus replies dryly.

"See you soon, Clausy," Ninten croons into the phone, and is replied to with the click of the call disconnecting.

He bikes over, cap tucked into his back pocket, the wind shifting restlessly through his hair. Partly it's because his mom isn't home to drive him, and even if she was, this gives Claus some time to shower. Not that Ninten's thinking about at it.

He'd also learned the hard way that walking there takes _too_ long.

He ditches his bike in the front yard, leaning it against the house because he still remembers the way Claus bitched at him whenever he left it waywardly on the grass. (It's a square of lawn, Ninten doesn't get it.) When he lets himself into the house, it's quiet.

"Hello?" He calls out.

"Hey, Ninten," he hears. It's not the voice he knows the same way that knows his own face in a mirror, but it's similar, and still familiar.

"Hey, Lucas," he says when he follows the voice into the kitchen, ruffling the other boy's hair as he passes. Lucas scowls but says nothing, just does he best to fix his hair again. Passive aggressive, as always. "What are you up to?"

Lucas shrugs. "Homework,"

Ninten glances down at the spread of books over the counter. "Seriously?" he asks. He doesn't know why he says it. Of course he's serious. Lucas is one of the most studious kids he knows, mostly out of his 'good boy' instincts more than anything else.

He and Claus are both pretty much brilliant. Ninten and Ness pretend that it doesn't make them feel like underachieving idiots most of the time.

Lucas smiles wryly, and the expression looks odd on his sweet face. "Well, I'm worrying about Prom more than I'm actually doing any work, but that's not really your problem."

Ninten nearly groans aloud. Everyone is talking about Prom, and Ninten doesn't even want to, but he has to sit here and listen to two of his closest friends moon over each other like oblivious idiots.

"Sure it's my problem, Lucas," he tries in the gentlest tone he can manage at present, sliding onto the chair beside the blond. "You're my friend."

Lucas gives a tiny shrug. "It's not your problem that I like someone who doesn't like me back."

"How do you know that?" He asks, and Lucas shoots him a frown. "Has he said it?"

"No," Lucas says, looking a little startled. "He doesn't even know that I like him."

"Well, maybe he would like you just as much if he knew. Maybe he already does, but hasn't done anything because he doesn't know about your feelings?"

Lucas shakes his head vehemently, a blush rising on his cheeks. "No, there's no way."

Ninten briefly contemplates smashing his own face into the counter.

"I think he'd go to Prom with you," Ninten says instead, clapping a companionable hand on Lucas' shoulder. "You should ask him."

Lucas' face washes white so quickly that Ninten fears he's going to pass out for a split second.

Ninten has no idea what Lucas would reply to that, and he doesn't find out, the two of them interrupted that moment by the sound of footsteps coming down the staircase.

Ninten turns, and Claus appears around the corner, hair still damp and tousled, strands of it stuck together and fanning out. He has on a t-shirt Ninten recognizes, knows the material is soft from multiple washes, and it stretches a little tight across Claus' shoulders, and Ninten briefly remembers that the shirt used to belong to him. He has on a pair of sweatpants, and altogether looks like he could just crawl into his bed and read a book under the covers, sitting only with a lamp and reading half-lidded in the dim light, warm and easy against Ninten's side in a way that's not all too common but often enough to be familiar. Claus' eyes scan the room and then land on Ninten, a bright teal that's a shade so close to crystal clear water it should be soothingly cool, but it only seems to send warmth blooming from deep inside him, because fuck his life, seriously.

"Hey," Claus says, walking around them both and heading for the fruit bowl on the counter, because he actually pays attention to official food groups instead of counting oreos as one their own. "Have you been waiting long?"

"Nah," Ninten replies. "And besides, I ha dear Lucas here to converse with me. We had a very deep, heartfelt conversation. You should be sad to have missed it."

"Woe the way my existence shall become pitiful for having missed that one," Claus says, turning back to them and starting to peel and orange with his fingernail.

"You're a horrible brother," Ninten says, voice grave.

Claus lifts his middle finger in reply.

Ninten can't help it, he lets out a snort. Claus just shoots him a wry smile, and Ninten winks back.

"Um, do you want me to leave?" Lucas says shyly, and to Ninten's surprise, when he looks over at him, there's a weak blush on the other boy's cheeks.

"No, it's fine." Claus replies, finishing with his orange peel and tossing it in the garbage. "Was the conversation you had before actually okay, or should I hit Ninten?"

Ninten shoots Claus a betrayed look, but Claus doesn't even glance at him. Whoever said gingers had no souls was totally right, Claus is the proof.

Lucas purses his lips. "It was fine."

Ninten turns in his seat to face the blond, and he and Claus both fix him with an evaluating look. Eventually, Lucas ducks his head.

"It was just... It was about Prom and I'm a little worried about it, but it'll be fine, I promise."

Claus holds his orange out to Ninten, and Ninten takes it easily, taking a slice for himself. Claus rounds the counter and stands next to his brother until Lucas looks back up at him.

"You're an idiot," he declares, and promptly pulls his brother into a headlock.

Lucas lets out a whining sort of protest, flailing wildly in his brother's grip. Lucas gets pulled off the stool, and the two of them move in awkward circles from a minute or so as Lucas tries to get free, and then Claus lets him go. Lucas glares at him, fixing his shirt, but Claus looks unruffled, simply takes his orange back from Ninten and pops a slice into his mouth, sits on the chair to Ninten's other side and puts his legs out on either side of Ninten's chair, boxing him in.

"Ask the dumb kid out, he doesn't have enough sense to do it himself." Claus says.

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

"Right, so you're not totally hot and panting over Ness?"

Lucas flushes red from the tips of his ears down to the collar of his shirt, and flashes Ninten a vaguely panicked look. Ninten waves him off. "I'm not going to say anything to him."

Lucas visibly settles slightly. "Thank you -"

"Besides," Ninten cuts him off with a smile curling with mischief, "I don't have to, you're obvious enough."

Lucas looks like he wants to hit him, but he can hear Claus let out a soft chuckle from behind him, so he takes it as a win.

"Whatever, you can grow up to be sad and alone if you want, but if when you're the best man at my wedding I don't want a bitter speech that you give after crying and getting drunk hours before the reception." Claus offers.

"You're both awful," Lucas declares, and Ninten knows the smile he can't keep from spreading over his mouth matches the one Claus has. "I will not be your best man, because you are so awful that no one will marry you."

Claus just hums in consideration, and lets the point go. Lucas pouts at the both of them, and scoops his books up, stomping out of the kitchen.

"I wonder if Ness would still want him so much if he knew that he can be such a sourpuss," Ninten muses aloud, and his heart doesn't flutter at the way Claus leans forward and hides his smiles in the curve of his neck, not at all.

"Probably," He says. "They're both sort of obsessed."

"You're right," Ninten admits. "I mean, Lucas still blushes like a virgin bride on her wedding night, and so that's more than enough to keep Ness completely preoccupied from noticing any potential character flaws."

"Oh my god, can you please not use that comparison about my brother while I'm in the room?" Claus grouses, but he must not be that upset based on the way that he doesn't lift his head, so that Ninten can feel him speaking the words into his shoulder. Ninten can't help but smile.

"What, so you're willing to encourage the two of them to go to Prom, even though there's no possible way that it will not lead them to being the most grossly cute couple in the history of the earth, and that they'll probably get married and go to movies where they can brush noses and giggle in the dark and Ness will constantly have his arm around Lucas, and eventually their with held hormones will break the damn and they'll end up banging and your brother will get completely defiled?"

"Okay, what the fuck," Claus says, pulling away sharply.

Ninten laughs. "I hope you think of this when they get married, and remember that as soon as the night's over and they get home from everyone else then -"

"Jesus Christ," Claus cuts him off. "You are awful, fuck you."

Ninten spins around to face Claus, unable to keep the grin form edging onto his face, despite the fact that it's fairly likely to cause him harm. "Well, I suppose while your brother and his lover boy go at it, I could give you a shot too," He says, and then immediately wishes they lived downtown so that there was a skyscraper he could throw himself off of.

Surprise flashes briefly over Claus' face, before he just raises an eyebrow with a wry, challenging expression. "I'm pretty sure I'd ruin you for life."

Ninten doesn't doubt it, but there's no way he's voicing that aloud. "Someone has a high opinion of himself."

Claus just hums in reply, and then slips off his chair, popping in the last orange slice and makes a gesture for Ninten to follow him. Ninten rolls his eyes at his commandeering personality, but follows none the less.

And if they end up in Claus' room, with Claus lying on his stomach to read and Ninten plastered to his back and urging him to read aloud to him, he pretends it doesn't mean anything.

When Ninten walks into school on Monday morning, he is surrounded by a bombardment of Prom posters, and his distaste causes his face to twist in a way that he can't help.

Ness laughs at him when he walks up to their lockers, side by side, and Ninten figures his face had stuck that way.

"What did you eat?" He asks. "Bad oreo?"

"Oreos are never bad," Ninten says wisely. "Instead, I have accidentally had a taste of the overly school spirit infected days of our education, and the tendency to create large, class-wide events of the social pressure to find someone willing to link arms with you in sweaty formal wear for an unreasonable amount of time."

Ness raises both eyebrows. "Okay wow. Did you get rejected or something?"

Ninten gives him a sour look and opens his locker.

"Whoa, wait, did you actually -"

"No," Ninten sighs, and lays his head against the cold metal of his locker door. "But I still don't like Prom."

Ness snorts. "You totally have someone you're too chicken to ask, don't you?"

Ninten reaches out and flicks Ness' ballcap. "I'm sorry, what was that, Mr. Ginormous Hypocrite?"

Ness frowns, rearranging his hat on his head. "How does Claus feel about that?"

Ninten freezes, can feel his back become a length of tight cord as he slowly turns to face Ness. "What?"

"How does Claus feel about you having a crush on someone?"

"I don't -" Ninten starts, then stops abruptly. "Why would he care?"

The way Ness looks at him makes Ninten feel like he's missed something astronomical, but he doesn't get it, he and Claus aren't _like _that, whatever strange feelings he might get about him sometimes aren't there in the long run, little thoughts that pop up from time to time without any meaning, haven't dug beneath his skin.

Ninten never finds out what it is though, considering the bell rings then. As he and Ness separate to their classes, Ninten tries to pretend that he doesn't feel a ripple of relief spreading from his chest.

Ninten is leaning against his locker after school, listening to Ness chatter away while gesticulating wildly. He looks up, casually scanning the hallway, and spots Claus coming the hallway towards him. He raises an eyebrow, but Claus just raises both back, and gestures sharply over his shoulder with a toss of his head.

Ninten glances behind him in confusion, only to see him tugging Lucas along, an indignant flush rising in the boy's cheeks from being tugged along. It takes about a split second for Ninten to catch on, but when he does, he spins and latches onto Ness' arm.

"What -" Ness starts, looking at Ninten in incredulity.

"If you run, I will not only fight you tooth and nail to keep you here, but I will convince your mother not to cook a steak for the next year," Ninten threatens, clutching to him in a vise grip, doing his best to envision himself as a barnacle.

"You've finally lost it," Ness says.

"Oh no, Ninten is perfectly sane," Claus declares from behind them, voice cheerful, because of course he can only be happy when it's schadenfreude. "At the moment, anyways,"

Ninten narrows his eyes at him, but Claus' lips just curl to the side a little bit, smug.

"Um," Lucas says, and he looks like he's trying to play his brother off as a lunatic, but it's not really working based on the fact that he's turned the approximate colour of a fire hydrant. "Just- Just ignore them."

"You know," Ness says, significantly more oblivious, "if you and Claus wanted alone time, you could have just asked. You don't have to, like, forcefully lump Lucas and I together."

Ninten tries to subtly grind his heel into Ness foot without losing his hold, but Claus just rolls his eyes. "Oh no, this isn't about us. This is all about _you _two."

Ness squints at him, but Claus just smiles beatifically and shoves his brother forward. "Now ask him, you squishy couraged cunt."

Ninten has to turn a snort a laugh into his sleeve, trying not to be distracting to the point that he keeps Lucas from actually going through with it, but judging from the look Claus gives him when he lifts his head, he doesn't really succeed.

"Ask me what?" Ness' voice is slow and wary, and his eyes flick between the three of them, gauging.

A strangled sound comes from out of Lucas, and they all turn to him, and Ninten's pretty sure that he'd be flushing deeper if it were possible for anymore blood to rush to his face. "I-" his voice cracks, and he needs to clear it before trying again. "They wa-want me to, to um, ask you to prom."

There's a long moment of silence, and Ninten flicks a look over at Ness, where he's standing sharply. Abandoning any attempt at finesse or subtly, they're so close and they just need to get it over by now or Ninten will shove Ness' hat down his throat, seriously, he elbows Ness sharply in the side.

Ness lets out a sharp hack, doubly over slightly, before he straightens up so suddenly that Ninten feels a little like he just experienced minor whiplash by holding onto him. "Yes, I, yes, please."

Lucas looks not only completely ecstatic, but also vastly relieved. Claus, true to character, completely ruins the moment by laughing.

"Claus," Lucas says, frowning.

"You're welcome," he replies, saluting. "I hope you remember this moment in the future, and how I am the entire reason your relationship exists."

Of course, Ninten thinks. He _would_ do it just in order to be able to blackmail them and hold it over their heads.

"See you, lovebirds," Claus replies, and then grabs Ninten by the wrist and tugs him away, and Ninten stumbles away, grip already lax on Ness but not expecting the movement. "And just so you know, Ness, you hurt my little brother, and I will choke you with your yo-yo."

He pulls Ninten away down the hall, and Ninten turns into his shoulder, hiding his laughter there so that Ness hopefully won't be able to bitch him out about it later. Lucas' voice rings out behind them, "I'm not your little brother; I'm your _twin!_"

"Younger twin, younger brother, argument stands," Claus says without turning around, waving over his shoulder. The two of them duck into a side hallway before the two boys they left behind can come after them.

Ninten stops, and Claus gets tugged to a stop beside him. He looks at him, eyebrows raised, a little curious but not annoyed, and Ninten knows that he's not upset about Ness and his brother getting together, and will be open to talking to Ninten as he is.

"Do you think they'll be upset that we set them up?" Ninten asks, a little nervous. He knows that Ness and Lucas are already far overdue for a relationship, but the idea of sitting awkwardly sideline while they're a couple beside him is sometimes Ninten already dislikes. The idea of acting having made his friends angry at him, even with good intentions, churns his stomach.

"I doubt it," Claus says, nipping Ninten's cap from his head with nimble fingers. "It all worked out, after all."

Ninten frowns down at the hat in his friend's hands. "I guess." He takes his hat back, stuffing it in his back pocket.

"What about us, then?" Claus asks, and Ninten looks up at him in mild confusion. "Did you want to go to Prom?"

Ninten feels like he's been hit over the head. He wonders if this is what vertigo feels like, if this is what it's like to skydive and have your parachute break.

"What?" the voice is far away, rough and hoarse, and it takes Ninten a moment to realise it's his own.

"Did you want to go?" Claus repeats, looking like he's questioning all of Ninten's intelligence. "I know I didn't ask, you know, formally or anything, but I assumed you would want to. If you'd rather not, we can just hang out though."

"_What?" _Is all Ninten can say, slightly more hysterical.

Claus looks a little off put by now. "It's okay to say no, we don't have to do anything then."

"Why?"

"Why don't we have to do anything then?"

"Why are talking so naturally about going to _Prom _together?"

Claus takes a sudden step back, and lets out a long, shaky breath, like he'd forgotten to breathe for a moment. "I thought..." he starts, but the sentence doesn't continue passed that.

"Thought what?" Ninten prompts him, and his head feels light, his heart fluttering and his chest feels strained, like he's not getting enough air but can't remember how to breathe deeply enough to remedy it.

Claus stares at him for so long that Ninten thinks he won't speak, that they'll stall here in the hallway into Ninten gives up on the conversation. He feels time stall and the thick absence of sound around them, only the clock stuck to the wall ticking above them, the white noise and murmuring of the few students still clearing out, and their own breaths.

Then, suddenly, Claus wets his lip, and Ninten feels movement begin to swirl around them again, time running smooth around them. "I thought we were dating."

Ninten's feeling of nausea comes back full force, only stronger, and for a split second he becomes unaware of his surroundings, coated in a layer of his own surprise to separate him from it. He comes back into it, has to breathe in a rattling gasp, and Claus is standing before him, shifting on his feet like he wants to run.

"Fuck," Ninten says, and Claus flinches.

A dry laugh escapes the other boy, and Ninten's heart twists. "I guess I should have known better than to assume. It's not like we ever actually talked about it or brought it up, I just..." he shrugs, "I thought you could tell by how I acted." His eyes turn back onto Ninten, sharp teal, and Ninten's stomach drops out. "...Sorry."

"You idiot," Ninten can't keep himself from saying, Claus grimaces. "Come here," he says, and doesn't want for Claus to give any sign of agreement before he hauls him into a hug.

"Doesn't that mean we're okay?" Claus says, a little hesitantly, and Ninten thinks if he was with him when Claus got to the end of the Fault in Our Stars and started to cry, and tried to hide it in his comforter and then swore Ninten to secrecy when he couldn't, like Ninten ever would have told anyone about it.

"It means I would like to be dating you and go to Prom, and have you actually talk to me about things in the future instead of avoiding emotions like an allergy?" Ninten says into Claus' ear, still wrapped up in their hug.

Claus shoves an arm into Ninten stomach, and Ninten grunts and lets go, glowering at him. Claus rolls his eyes and then reaches out, running a hand so lightly over Ninten's jaw that Ninten barely registers the brush before Claus has a hand locked behind the back of his head and tugs him to place a soft kiss on his forehead. "You're damn lucky I like you, you complete goddamn moron."

"You are so not one to talk," Ninten replies, but his voice comes out softer than the comment warrants.

Claus pulls away then, looking at Ninten like he's trying to resist rolling his eyes again, and then turns away. "I'll drive you home."

Ninten can't help grinning, skidding forward and easily snatching up Claus' hand from his side. "My Knight in shining armour." Claus shoots him a sour look, obviously not amused, and it's a shame that he's with a guy that doesn't appreciate his humour, because obviously the extent of how hilarious he is happens to be lost on Claus. "Just so you know, I expect you to wear a tux."

Claus lets out a huff, but he doesn't take his hand back, so Ninten knows he's winning. "I figured that was a given."

"And," Ninten begins grandly, and Claus knows him well enough to look over at him, "I expect you to dance."

"No," Claus says shortly, turning to face down the hall again.

"Yes," Ninten argues back. "At least one regular dance, with your brother and Ness, and one dance with me,"

"Fuck you," Claus bites out.

"Not yet," Ninten replies without thinking. Claus looks over at him, looking a little startled, and Ninten doesn't think he's ever been as thrilled as he is then, seeing the touch of pink bridging the other boy's cheekbones. "C'mon, Clausy," he wheedles, and Claus narrows his eyes.

"You are watching all of Schindler's List with me." Claus says, and Ninten lets out a whoop and pumps his free hand in the air.

"Awesome," he says, and Claus looks exasperated, but Ninten thinks he's a little fond, too.

* * *

**Hope you guys enjoyed! uvu**

**I drew something very loosely based from that one scene where Lucas left and it's just Ninten and Claus but ANATOMY ISN'T MY FRIEND 8(**

**If you want to check it out, it's on dA and add /art/Familiarity-Ninten-x-Claus-440032485 to the end!**

**:)**


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